In this episode it is my pleasure to talk with Thomas Whitelaw, National Lead for Person Centred Voices and know by many as Tommy on Tour.

We explore What Matters to You from a carers perspective and Tommy shares how the experience of caring for his Mum proved the catalyst for the incredible work he does today.

You can access the resource Tommy refers to in our conversation https://linktr.ee/personcentred

Key messages

• Tommy talks about the stories he collected about love and loneliness through talking with people

• Tommy describes stumbling into caring for his Mum and the new role of a carer he found himself in
  

  The five steps Tommy describes as vital to Advance Care Planning and all care delivered:

• What Matters to you

• Who matters to you

• What Matters 

• What Kind of Information Do You need?

• Nothing about me without me
  

• The simple boards containing What Matters to Me are described

• We discuss the importance of asking carers what matters most 

Resource

• You can access the resource Tommy refers to in our conversation https://linktr.ee/personcentred

• Find out more about What Matters to You Scot

Bio

For five years Tommy Whitelaw was a full-time carer for his late mother Joan who had Vascular Dementia. In 2011 Tommy undertook a walk around Scotland’s towns and cities to collect hundreds of life stories and letters detailing the experiences of individuals who care for a loved one living with dementia. Tommy took this collection of stories to the Scottish Parliament to raise awareness of the value of carers, providing a platform for people to share their experiences and highlight what is needed to better support carers in Scotland.

Since then, he has engaged with thousands of carers through his ‘Tommy on Tour’ blog and as National Lead for the ALLIANCE’s Person Centred Voices Project. In this role he delivers frequent talks to health and social care professionals, students and carer organisations across the UK ,Europe and North America promoting the values and principles of ‘What Matters to You?’, ‘Intelligent Kindness’ and ‘Civility Saves Lives’ – movements that identify active listening, kindness, and person centredness as key to providing inclusive support and care to all individuals, as well as healthy work environments.

This outreach programme has now reached over 280,000+ people across 2,300+ talks, gathering 30,000 ‘What Matters to You’ pledges, capturing people’s commitments to putting this work into practice for the benefit of individuals and Families.

In 2014, 2019 and again in 2023 Tommy produced Concerts for Caring. Each concert, held at Glasgow’s Royal Concert Hall saw over 1,850 individuals join for an evening of music, celebration and respite.

Tommy has been the recipient of the below awards: along with Social Security Scotland naming a training room in his honour.